XN000022-1973-10-17 — Page 21

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Wednesday, October 17, 1973

EXPANSION OF MEDICAL FACILITIES

Governor Lists Major Medical Targets Of Next Decade

The Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, said today that by 1983,

Hong Kong would have 5.5 hospital beds per 1,000 of the population.

This ratio for the next decade

Medical Development Advisory Committee

one of the recommendations of the

contrasted favourably with the

4.25 beds per 1,000 of the population set by the White Paper of 1964, a target

that would be both reached and passed by next year.

The Governor described the new ratio as a "formidable" target, to

be achieved at a time when the scale of development in other fields would be

making "great demands on our resources.'

It would involve providing an additional 8,250 beds over and above

the 3,000 already in the pipeline, but Sir Murray said the government was

obliged to consider carefully the various methods by which this target might

not only by building more hospitals, but also "by contriving

the fullest use of beds already available in government and assisted

hospitals."

be reached

The Governor told the Legislative Council that Hong Kong was justly

proud of its medical and health services for having, despite the high density

of this community, been able to point to "consistently falling levels in the

overall death rate, in infant and maternal mortality, and in the incidence of

infectious diseases."

With the end of the development period set out in the 1964 White Paper,

Sir Murray said an experienced and authoritative Medical Development Advisory

Committee under the chairmanship of Sir Albert Rodrigues had completed and

submitted comprehensive plans for meeting the needs of the next ten years.

The Committee

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